The Quirky, Furry, In a Hurry blanket

I have a confession to make. I am scared to death of quilting. There are so many RULES. Rules and I just don’t get along when it comes to crafting. I don’t like patterns and I don’t like long tedious projects. I much prefer to try things out on my own and learn from my mistakes. So when I set out to make a baby blanket to go with Caroline’s new decor I tried construct the very easiest blanket I could think of.

It was so easy I can sum it up in just a few easy steps:

I cut out a bunch of strips of fabric and sewed them together like so:

I ironed all the seam allowances to one side, then I evened up the edges and squared the corners:

Then I cut a piece of minky backing the same size as my strips of fabric. Exactly the same size. Next I pinned them right sides together. I decided I didn’t want batting in the blanket because I didn’t want it to be too hot. It’s more of a snuggle blanket than a sleeping blanket. If you wanted batting you could pin the front and back pieces right side together with a piece of batting on top.

I sewed all the way around leaving a 3 inch opening, turned it right side out, ironed, and then topstitched all the way around, closing the hole. Then I stitched about a quarter inch in all the way around.

The final step is tacking it down. I used the function on my machine for sewing buttons because I avoid hand stitching at any cost, but hand stitching would work nicely here too. I measured every 10 inches or so and pinned the fabric together, then sewed it like this:

Alida! WOW! That looks great. I have to say… I am really amazed you chose to work with Minky for your first quilt. You are one brave soul! It looks really nice with the double row of stitching on the edges. I like the different widths of strip too! Can I gush over this any more? 🙂

I am actually working on something similar right now! I made a square patchwork quilt instead of stripes, but I didn’t want batting and quilting scares me too. I’m doing a similar tacking, but since I have squares (that don’t line up perfectly at all, by the way :/ ) I’m just doing little “+” marks at every other intersection of the squares to tack it together! I also used fleece for my back and a mix of flannel and cotton for the front. It has turned out so cute though!!!

I’m working on a similar project right now, but I used squares instead of stripes. I’m scared of quilting too, and I had this same idea the other day of no batting, patchworking the front and using a solid piece on the back. I used navy fleece on the back and a mix of flannel and cotton jungle animal prints for the front. Since I did squares on the front (which don’t line up perfectly at all!) I’m making little “+” tacks instead at every other intersection of the squares. It looks great though, and I love it. My husband likes it so much that even though we don’t have a baby yet, he told me I have to keep it for when we do!